/*
* FLINT PARTICLE SYSTEM
* .....................
* 
* Author: Richard Lord
* Copyright (c) Richard Lord 2008-2011
* http://flintparticles.org
* 
* 
* Licence Agreement
* 
* Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
* of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
* in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
* to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
* copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
* furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
* 
* The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
* all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
* 
* THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
* IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
* FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
* AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
* LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
* OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
* THE SOFTWARE.
*/

package org.flintparticles.common.initializers;

import org.flintparticles.common.particles.Particle;
import org.flintparticles.common.emitters.Emitter;
import org.flintparticles.common.initializers.Initializer;
import org.flintparticles.common.behaviours.Behaviour;

/**
 * The Initializer interface must be implemented by all particle initializers.
 * 
 * <p>An Initializer is a class that is used to set properties of a particle 
 * when it is created. Initializers may, for example, set an initial velocity
 * for a particle.</p>
 * 
 * <p>Initializers are directly associated with emitters and act on all
 * particles created by that emitter. Initializers are applied to 
 * all particles created by an emitter by using the emitter's addInitializer 
 * method. Initializers are removed from the emitter by using the emitter's
 * removeInitializer method.</p>
 * 
 * <p>The key method in the Initializer interface is the initiaize method.
 * This is called for every particle and is where the initializer modifies 
 * the particle's properties.</p>
 * 
 * @see org.flintparticles.common.emitters.Emitter#addInitializer()
 * @see org.flintparticles.common.emitters.Emitter#removeInitializer()
 */
interface Initializer implements Behaviour
{
	/**
	 * The initialize method is used by the emitter to apply the initialization
	 * to every particle. It is the key feature of the initializers and is
	 * used to initialize the state of every particle. This method 
	 * is called within the emitter's createParticle method for every particle 
	 * and need not be called by the user.
	 * 
	 * @param emitter The Emitter that created the particle.
	 * @param particle The particle to be initialized.
	 */
	function initialize( emitter:Emitter, particle:Particle ):Void;
}
